Rock study

Preparations to leave the island and return to England are now under way. It's been a wonderful month, gloriously relaxing and a chance to recharge my batteries. Next week it's back to writing and teaching and planning, back to school for the children and a time to get freshly organised for the upcoming autumn and winter events for me.
I will leave you for now with a little study of the pink rocks at Guerzido beach, and the gateway to the hidden garden. I am really glad I ran out of time on this one because I love it as it is in it's half painted, sketched and bare toned canvas state. I've learnt that it's best to leave a gem like this alone and if I still hanker after the subject I can start a new studio painting based on it.

Hidden garden by the sea

Hidden garden by the sea

I think this must be my favourite from the trip! A magical place, with magical light.. this is a hidden garden by the sea. And that little building above the rocks may well be my studio one day... well a girl can dream can't she? And when it is you must join me there for a petit café or a refreshing glass of Brittany cider :-)

Deuxieme câle

Deuxieme cale

This is the deuxieme câle, where the ferry leaves or arrives on the island when it's medium tide. We always check the tide timetable before catching a ferry because it may be a ten minute walk to the boat or a twenty-five minute walk if the tide is low.
I found painting this really tricky with the reflective qualities of the wet mud making it so light in value and it's bumpy textured qualities adding extra complexity! I really didn't think it was working and then I stood back a few feet and suddenly I could see it and it all clicked into place.
We are quickly racing through our last week of summer on the island.

Fête des voisins

Fête des voisins

Have you any idea how tricky this little exercise was? This 10" x 12" canvas was painted en plein air on Thursday evening, when we had our wonderful neighbourhood summer party. Believe me, nobody was posing or sitting even remotely still!! This was all action, real life, plein air challenge with the setting sun to contend with and dogs running around nearly knocking over me/my easel/my champagne glass/all three!
And fun like that doesn't come around every day :-)

The photo doesn't do it justice so forgive me if I show you again at some point when I've actually worked out how to use the new camera which I'm presently scared to even hold in my hands!

Royal Society of Marine Artists success

After the water spout, Eastpoint

Great news everybody! After a nerve wracking last few hours waiting for the final selection results to be announced I found out that this painting 'After the water spout, Eastpoint' has been accepted to hang in the exhibition!
You may remember that this is a large studio painting (about 30" x 36" framed) based on a study from my May plein air trip to the Gulf coast in Florida.
The Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition takes place at the Mall galleries from October 16th to 27th.
I am absolutely delighted, and feel encouraged to continue to develop plein air paintings in the studio on a larger scale.

Magic at work

Detail

This is a bit of a teaser, as it's only a section of my painting from yesterday. I'm really struggling to get good photos, using the usual ipad/iPhone methods which is crazy as I have my brand new camera with me! Just need to knuckle down and start trying to use it :-)

This place at one side of the beach, when the tide is high and the summer sun is lowering is just sheer magic at work. Also you will see in the full painting that there is a gate leading to a hidden garden just above the rocks, which only adds to the thrill and mystery! I hope you don't mind my enthusiasm but I am in love with this scene. Needless to say I was back there tonight at the same time, and hopefully will be tomorrow too. Any day now as the tides and the weather and the sunset all change this particular magic will be gone, so I really must seize the moment!

Summer paradise

Sketching, painting, eating, reading and relaxing - I'm still here and still enjoying the lovely sunshine! I've been having lots of time away from the easel and also I've been tackling some tricky subjects such as this one. It's so easy to get away from it all on the island, it's like being on retreat. Having said that I am aware that my Royal Society of Marine Artists paintings were being judged in London today. Usually I'm able to more-or-less switch off until results day but not so today. One more day of wondering (agonising?) and then I'll know either way. Where has cool, calm and collected gone?! Maybe it's the heat...

Outgoing tide at Port Clos

Outgoing tide at Port Clos

Outgoing tide down at the port and outgoing visitors too. The people you can see in the painting are walking away from me, around the headland there and all the way to the third cale where the boat leaves the island at low tide.
I really enjoyed painting this, side by side with Lori. We climbed up on a big rock and were relatively undisturbed by onlookers up there! We remarked on how pleasant it is to paint boats when they are out of water, as they keep still for you. This is my largest painting so far this trip at 30 x 40 cms.
The day afterwards Lori was one of the people to leave the island, so now sadly I am back to painting toute seule. At least the sun is still shining!

Cottage with blue shutters

Cottage with blue shutters

This house stands at a corner two or three minutes walk away from my house. I've walked past it many times and considered painting it but haven't. This year the flowers in the garden look particularly spectacular, in fact it's almost hidden by the flowers! I took Lori there and we both painted it, from different viewpoints. It's a very busy corner in summer and we attracted a lot of attention. It's also a very popular corner for people getting lost and stopping to study their maps.

The manoir with hollyhocks

Manoir with hollyhocks

I knew this would be a difficult subject to tackle, in fact I didn't know where to start at first. The manor house building is very large, tall and imposing but I wanted to have the distant views featured in the painting so I chose to show just the bottom left hand corner of the large building. As well as the sky and sea in the distance I loved those hollyhock flowers peeping out in front of the dark wall, catching the light. The main star of the show, however, was that light edge along the top of the wall. I'm really pleased with how it turned out :-)
Oils 12" x 12"